Paper Flowers
by Atreyl
Summary: In which Mello is pushed past the breaking point by his love for a certain redhead. He's got to confess, or he might just explode.


**Paper Flowers**

"Attention, class," the art teacher, Ms. Hillary, announced. It took some time before all the talking was hushed, and when it was silent, she continued, "Today we will be doing something different than what we usually work on. Seeing as our art supplies were," her eyes narrowed sharply at a certain grinning blond boy sitting in the first row, "_incapacitated_ yesterday, it will take some time to replace them. So, while we wait for the replacements..." she sighed, rubbing her forehead. "Matt, will you please turn that off?" she asked wearily.

A redhead sitting beside Mello didn't look up from his game, which emitted small beeping noises. "But I'm on the last level."

"Matt," Ms. Hillary repeated firmly. Stress sure could make a woman short-tempered.

"Fine, fine." Matt turned off the game and looked up boredly at his teacher, eyes concealed by goggles. "Happy?"

"Thank you," Ms. Hillary said gratefully. "Now, as I was saying, while we are waiting for the supplies--Near, are you listening?" She interrupted herself once more, seeing the white-haired boy playing with a robot.

"Yes," Near replied shortly. "If Ms. Hillary would like some reassurance, it would be no problem for me to recite what you have been saying for the past five minutes."

"Stop being a show-off, Near!" Mello burst out from the front row, squirming around to face him in his seat.

"I am not showing off, Mello," Near said calmly, making his robot walk across his desk. "I'm simply showing Ms. Hillary that I can multitask quite fine."

"Stop it, stop it!" Ms. Hillary nearly shouted, hands fisting to resist pulling at her own chair. "Today we will be making paper flowers. The books on how to make them are on the front desk. Get to work. If you need help, go to Near." She flopped back on her chair, feeling tired.

"Go to Near, my ass," Mello grumbled, snatching a a fair amount of tissue paper. Beside him, a thirteen-year-old Matt chuckled and pushed their desks together so they were adjoined. "I don't need the damn books to make a damn flower," Mello continued to huff. "I could do this just fine by myself." He turned to his best friend. "Right?"

And Matt answered automatically, "Right." He took a piece of red tissue paper and began to fold it expertly with those skilled hands.

_Skilled hands...? _Mello thought to himself, and heated up at the different meanings that could partake. He glanced at Matt and was glad his blush wasn't seen. "Right, so we're making a flower..." Mello murmured, staring at the square tissue before him, looking perplexed.

"Maybe if I fold it this way...?" He began to fold at random, following his instinct. When in the end his result was something that didn't even vaguely resemble a flower, he growled, crumpled the paper, and began a new one. The process repeated until there was about ten minutes left of class. The sound of beeping brought Mello down from his insanity. "Matt," he snapped, facing the gamer. "How the hell are you finished?"

Matt didn't look up. "Erm, because I...finished?"

Mello's eye twitched, eyeing the paper rose lying innocently on Matt's desk. The blond snatched it, inspecting it close. "How did you-- God, will you stop playing on that thing for once and listen!"

Matt laughed a little, but put his game away nonetheless. He turned halfway in his chair to smile at Mello, not the least bit affected by the outburst. "You have my attention now, Mels. What do you want from me?"

_Oh, maybe your first love, your first kiss, your first---_ and then Mello almost banged his head on the desk. Matt was just _too _innocent at times. "I want you," Mello ordered gruffly. He swore he saw Matt's blue eyes widen behind goggles. "to teach me how to make that within a time span of fifteen minutes," Mello finished, and Matt's eyes went back to normal.

"Okay," the redhead chirped, scooting closer. "First, you take a piece of this--tissue stuff, okay?"

Mello laughed at his choice of vocabulary. "Okay, now what?" He asked, hands poised to fold.

"You fold it into a thin rectangle."

"Like this?"

"No! You're doing it wrong! Like _this._" And suddenly, Matt's hands were on top of his, nimble fingers guiding the blond's as they worked together to make a yellow flower.

"There." Matt finally pulled away, smiling in satisfaction at the product.

Mello's hands tingled all over. "T-thanks," he managed, just as Ms. Hillary dismissed the class. Mello was speechless the whole way to the cafeteria. Only when he was sitting in front of his best friend did he realize that Matt was now calling his name.

"Are you okay?" Matt leaned over the table and wound his hands around blond strands, _and goddamnit, they were so close, their lips would meet if only Mello would lean up just a little--_

Then Matt shook Mello's head, a method they often did when the other was spacing out. Mello crashed back down to Earth, blinking rapidly and trying to comprehend the situation. He looked up at Matt with a confused look.

"Huh?"

And he swore Matt whisper, "Damn, you're cute," as the redhead eased back into his own seat on the picnic table.

Mello opted to ignore it, poking around his mashed potatoes on his tray.

"What's wrong, Mello?" Matt asked. "You seem off today."

Mello smirked. "I never was on today."

Matt blushed, and _god, you look so damn tempting I could ravish you right now. _

"I saw a flier for a midnight carnival that's supposed to take place tonight," Mello began casually. "Starts at midnight, ends whenever the sun rises. You in?"

The question didn't need to be asked, because Matt would have gone with him anyway. "Yep." Matt nodded. "It's a date."

Mello paled.

Matt noticed and revised, "Jeez, Mello, I didn't mean _that _kind of date."

Mello was almost disappointed. "Whatever," he said, pretending to be brushing it off. "Date or not, we're gonna have hella fun."

...

Matt was screaming, clutching wildly at Mello's waist as the coaster dipped down one more time. Mello cackled joyously, both from excitement and the fact that Matt was clinging to him like a leech. The sound was whipped away by the wind.

The coaster eventually slowed to a stop, and the operator of the ride stared weirdly at Mello, who stood with a Matt fused to his hip.

Mello shrugged. "He's not too bad," and walked away. Matt still refused to unlatch himself from his fourteen-year-old best friend, so Mello had to resort to bribery.

Not that he didn't enjoy Matt's close presence.

"I'll buy you a new game," Mello chided.

Matt whimpered and hid his face in Mello's shoulder. "I wanna go back!"

"And cotton candy," Mello added.

At this, Matt perked like a puppy and was on his own feet in a flash. "The pink one, please," he said sweetly.

Mello snorted, giving the younger the finger before sashaying off to the cotton candy stand, missing Matt licking his lips in anticipation of not just the cotton candy. Two dollars later, the duo were walking around aimlessly, Matt complaining that the cotton candy melted before he could swallow it whole.

"It's supposed to do that," Mello said, rolling his eyes at the redhead attempted the feat for the hundredth time.

"Yeah, and the wrinkly part of your elbow is called the wenus," Matt said sarcastically.

"It is."

"...Shut up."

They went on a few more rides, ones less life-threatening than the one that made Matt glue himself to Mello. Everything was fun and carefree until Mello bought and ate some spiked chocolates, which made the night a _little _more interesting.

"I don' wan' to leeeeaaaave," Mello slurred/whined. He was leaning against heavily against Matt, who struggled under the weight.

"Mel, you're practically drunk," Matt managed. "We've got to get back."

As Mello whined and protested, and people stared, Matt half-dragged Mello's arse to the front gates of Wammy's(a good 2 miles away). There, the gamer stopped and crumbled into a panting heap. Unfortunately, Mello fell on top of him.

"Mello," he gasped. "So...damn...heavy...Get off!" He yelled, wiggling around.

Mello just smiled shyly, making no move to get off. "Matty," he whispered, nuzzling the other's cheek.

Matt froze, rigid, trying to decide what to do with the blond that was practically purring on top of him. "Mello," he got out, and gulped at their closeness. And the way Mello was looking at him with--was the _love?_-- was unnerving. He didn't know what to say.

Thankfully(or not) he didn't have to, because Mello chose that time to close the distance between their lips and engulf the redhead in a dizzying kiss.

"M-Mello..." The name melted against Mello's _oh, so soft _lips.

"I like you a lot," Mello said once he pulled back. He snuggled into the nape of Matt's neck.

Matt blinked. "Y-you're drunk, M-Mello. W-we have-have to get you b-back." He was stumbling over his own words, cheeks a bright rose red.

"N-no!" Mello protested, struggling to hold himself up as he stared into Matt's eyes. Suddenly frustrated, he pulled off Matt's goggles and stared into deep blue orbs. "I love you."

"I love you, too," Matt said softly, realizing his friend was telling the truth. He was about to say more, but Mello's silenced him with another kiss.

Not that Matt was complaining.


End file.
